Those Who Hunt Elves I & II: You Can't Do That On (Prime Time) Television

The 80s in Japan could probably be described, in some way, as an "Age of Excess" when it came to the anime industry, and specifically when it came to the Original Video Animation/OVA. With the release of Dallos starting in late 1983, & especially with Megazone 23 in 1985, the idea of producing anime straight to home video blew up & created an entire new vector for anime to be produced via... and, best of all, money was easy to come across, so effectively ANYONE with an idea, money, & a path to distribution could create an OVA, for better or worse. The Japanese economy was booming from 1986 to 1991, which allowed the OVA market to expand to ridiculous heights, but nothing lasts forever & in 1992 the "bubble economy" burst. While OVAs still continued to get made throughout the 90s, they were nowhere near as prevalent as they were in the 80s, and for the most part tended to get made in relation to TV series that were already known to be popular & successful. However, entering into the second half of the 90s some people took note of "aniraji/anime radio", which were radio shows aimed at otaku that broadcast in late-night, i.e. after 11:00 pm, and while the idea of late-night anime had existed since the literal start of the concept in 1963, those kinds of shows were specifically aimed at "regular" adults who simply would be interested in watching anime that related to them, i.e. sexuality, dirty humor, mahjong, etc.

But could those very otaku who were listening to aniraji be willing to watch anime in late-night... and, in turn, buy merchandise related to those anime, i.e. manga, telephone cards, figures, home video releases, etc.?

In the end TV Tokyo wound up being the network that was willing to give this concept a try, but it did so via brokered programming, i.e. the time slots would be purchased by the producers of the anime themselves. Quite literally, this would be an "anime infomercial" where the anime itself was the infomercial for the associated merchandise that otaku would purchase, which is what the real point of all this was: To get otaku to buy swag. In order for this idea to really work, though, the first show to be aired via this "late-night anime infomercial" format would ideally be something that could never be allowed to air on more standard time slots anime was generally associated with, i.e. weekend mornings & prime time during weekdays. Luckily, in the pages of MediaWorks' Monthly Comic Dengeki GAO! there was just the manga that would be perfect for this concept: Elf wo Karu Mono-tachi/Those Who Hunt Elves by Yu Yagami. A dropout from Osaka Sangyo University, & former assistant to Yu Kinutani, Yu Yagami debuted Those Who Hunt Elves in early 1994 & would eventually finish it after a nine-year run in 2003, with a total of 21 volumes (plus a "DX" volume), though he would eventually return to it a couple of times with Those Who Hunt Elves Returns (a single-volume revival from late 2007 to early 2008) & Those Who Hunt Elves 2 (a digital serialization via Comic Meteor from 2013-2018 that totaled 10 volumes). There was also 2009-2011's Ageha wo Ou Mono-tachi/Those Who Chase Ageha, but that's totally unrelated & Yagami likely only titled it similarly for funsies.

Why was Those Who Hunt Elves the perfect anime for this new infomercial-esque concept? Because the entire gimmick of the series was that a bunch of people from Earth get teleported to a fantasy world, and the only way to get back home is to find fragments of a magic spell... and the only way to find the fragments is by stripping female elves of their clothes, since the fragments have become tattoo-like marks on their bodies. Yep, there is literally no way in hell that concept would have ever been approved for a morning, afternoon, or prime time TV anime slot in Japan in the mid-90s, and even as late as 2015 the Chinese Ministry of Culture literally included Those Who Hunt Elves as one of 38 different anime & manga that it had banned in China, alongside the likes of Elfen Lied, Blood-C, Corpse Party, Death Note, School Days, & Highschool of the Dead; to be fair, the list also included Inferno Cop. Anyway, the Those Who Hunt Elves anime would debut on "October 3, 1996 at 25:45" & run for 12 episodes, where it wound up being a success, leading to the idea of the "late-night anime infomercial" becoming more widely accepted... and today is the primary way the vast majority of TV anime gets made, but I've already been going over that history this entire year. One year later, on "October 1, 1997 at 25:45", a second season titled Those Who Hunt Elves II/Second (which is likely why Yagami went with the Arabic numeral for his manga sequel) would air on TV Tokyo for an additional 12 episodes, and around 1999 ADV Films would start releasing the first season via both dubbed & subbed VHS tapes, before eventually re-releasing it on dual-audio DVD in late 2001 & early 2002. Those Who Hunt Elves II would then see release in 2003 via dual-audio DVD only, and afterwards both seasons would always get re-released together as a 24-episode series, whether it was by ADV or (later) Sentai Filmworks via DVD boxsets in 2005, 2009, & 2016, or SD-BD boxset in 2019. ADV would also release the original manga in 2003 & 2004, but only put out the first seven volumes, stopping just shy of where the anime adapted up through, which looks to be Volume 8. To be fair, the show has been out been out of print for the better part of the past decade, & currently isn't streaming anywhere in English right now.

Anyway, my year-long celebration(?) of the 30th Anniversary of the modern-day late-night anime infomercial continues, on the literal day of the anniversary itself, with a review of the one that started it all, Those Who Hunt Elves (I & II)!